Lê Văn Trung (Hán nôm: 黎文忠; 25 November 1876 – 19 November 1934) was the first acting ''Giáo Tông'' of

Cao Đài Caodaism ( vi, Đạo Cao Đài, Chữ Hán: ) is a monotheistic syncretic new religious movement officially established in the city of Tây Ninh in southern Vietnam in 1926. The full name of the religion is (The Great Faith or theThird Un ...

.Serguei A. Blagov -Caodaism: Vietnamese Traditionalism and Its Leap Into Modernity 2001– Page 78 "800 delegates, representing some 135,000 adepts, reportedly attended. However, Lê Vàn Trung declined to attend the meeting. Consequently, the Council supported Trang's allegations. Phạm Công Tắc initiated an attempt to clinch a peace ..." The term ''Giáo Tông'' means “leader or head of a religious group”. Translators noticed similarities between the structural hierarchy of Caodaism and the Roman

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

, and, for lack of better words or whatever reasons, borrowed terminologies such as

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, cardinal, bishop, priest, etc. In practice, Caodaiism has many more ranks and titles of which there are no official English translation yet. Also, the actual Vietnamese term for “pope”, as in “The Catholic Pope”, is ''Giáo Hoàng''. In 1926, Lê Văn Trung believed a great Chinese poet had contacted him during a ''

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spea ...

'' to give him a religious mission in life. This led to his signing the “Declaration of the Founding of the Cao Đài Religion” on 7 October 1926. This formally announced the founding of the religion to the world. The declaration he signed affirmed principles that combined

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

spiritism Spiritism (French: ''spiritisme''; Portuguese: ''espiritismo'') is a spiritualist, religious, and philosophical doctrine established in France in the 1850s by the French teacher, educational writer, and translator Hippolyte Léon Denizard R ...

and others. Before this,

Ngô Văn Chiêu Ngô Văn Chiêu (28 February 1878 – 1932) was the first disciple of Đức Cao Đài. His religious name is Ngô Minh Chiêu.Serguei A. Blagov Caodaism: Vietnamese Traditionalism and Its Leap Into Modernity "Ngô Văn Chiêu - Atomization of C ...

had declined his appointment as Pope and withdrew to represent a more

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

form of the faith. Lê Văn Trung took the more

exoteric Exoteric refers to knowledge that is outside and independent from a person's experience and can be ascertained by anyone (related to common sense). The word is derived from the comparative form of Greek ἔξω ''eksô'', "from, out of, outside" ...

approach, becoming their leader and acting Pope. After Trung's death (disincarnation) in 1934, the Venerable Phạm Công Tắc, who was also the Maintainer of the Laws/

Dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

, assumed the role.

References

Religious Movements on Cao Daism

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le, Van Trung Vietnamese religious leaders 1934 deaths Caodaism Vietnamese Caodaists Place of birth missing Place of death missing 1876 births